Gears of War 4 beta access is coming&excl;

The creators of Gears of War (providers of the image above) have announced the release of the long-awaited Gears of War 4 Beta! For those of you who don't know, here is the five-second rundown of the game: it's a multiplayer third-person shooter game (two-player local or online) in which you and a few survivors are looking to save the planet Sera from the Locust horde.

In order to obtain early access to the beta, you need to have played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for the Xbox One or Windows 10. These players will receive tokens in waves that will allow them to log onto the beta (as long as they are using their own Xbox Live gamertag.) This beta will be open Monday, April 18th to Sunday the 24th.

This doesn't mean that everyone else is cut off. If you purchase and register for the Ultimate Edition now, you will be able to obtain the tokens. There is also an open beta that will begin Monday, April 25th and run to Sunday, May 1st for Xbox Live Gold members.

After an exclusive look into the game's production, Game Informer reported that we should probably expect Horde mode to return, and that the game will remain as it has always been -- human vs. monster. Players will be able to take on the personas of five main characters: JD, Kait, Del, Reyna (Kait's mom and leader of the Outsiders) and Oscar and (Kait's uncle, ex-Gear soldier, and expert survivalist.)